Firebrand

Alicia Vikander gives a graceful performance and the lavish period production shines, but unfortunately this is more fizzle-out than fire-starter.

It’s that rarest of releases: a picture that would benefit immensely from being far more lurid and overblown. It’s no coincidence that the element that works best -- Law’s gloriously monstrous Henry.

Firebrand exceeds in capturing the way mundanity can slip so easily into terror; how a feast or a jest... can descend into hell at the turn of one man’s emotions.

Catherine is an ethical Machiavel, wrangling the king to noble ends. But the movie is vague about what those are, and oddly brisk about her groundbreaking role as a published woman writer.

Vikander gives her best performance since Ex Machina. She looks naturally so reserved and gentle, but this flawless, serene countenance masks great strength and resolve.

It doesn’t play fast and loose with the facts so much as throw them out the window. This can work, if it’s for a good reason, but this, alas, never seems to find that reason.

Firebird too often cleaves to presenting the events as possible when they’re patently not making the audience more ignorant about Katherine Parr. Firebrand comes off as phony as a three-dollar bill thus relegating the whole exercise moot.

“Firebrand” blends fact and fiction so effortlessly that it sometimes elevates unlikely plot contrivances into the realm of the convincing.

Works as an entertaining episode of the saga. [Full review in Spanish]

This adaptation of Elizabeth Fremantle's The Queen's Game provides a rare perspective from Catherine Parr. [Full review in Spanish]